Finding the right key for small church worship

If there is one topic that we can guarantee lots of comments on, it’s the subject of song keys. On the one hand you have the die-hards who are convinced that it is essential to use the original key (we address that here) and on the other you have the (*coughs* diva-like) worship leaders who insist on an obscure key that makes their voice sound fabulous but the rest of us are hitting either the gravel or dolphin zones in an attempt to keep up.

I’ve been to a number of weddings in the last few years of people that are not regular church goers. As a result the song choice has tended towards the traditional hymn (Jerusalem, All Things Bright and Beautiful etc) with the resident organist. And I’ve been astonished at how impossible they were to sing. Those old school hymn books seem to break all the rules on singability. I’m guessing that back in the day that these hymn tunes were written (and many are taken from old folk tunes) that people could actually hit the high notes pretty well. What has happened since?

Again, I’m guessing but we have moved from a singing culture to one that watches people sing. The voice is a muscle – if we don’t use it, it’s not going to work very well. That cultural shift also means that when we do sing (in the unfamiliar setting of a cold church building, in your best wedding clothes and the only time in recent memory that you can remember singing was either at a late night karaoke session or giving it some at a gig or football final) we tend to approach the singing self consciously and quietly – those high notes simply won’t work unless you belt them out.

Remember too that many of the contemporary worship songs we struggle with are written by men (Tomlin, Wickham, Hughes etc) who sing professionally. These tend to be tenors rather than basses so have a naturally high range anyway. Coupled with their regular singing practice, it’s no wonder they are writing songs that are so high. And yes, when we go to one of their concerts we’ll sing along and not even realise how high those songs are – but the context is different – we’re not so self conscious, the volume is so much higher – so we sing along with more gusto ourselves, and the adrenalin is running too.

Anyway, we talk about all this a lot in our training days and it’s a topic that comes up from time-to-time on our Facebook page and here on the website. We thought we’d write up some practical guidelines particularly in the context of choosing keys in a small church setting. The same rules apply for small groups.

Andy’s article:

Finding the right key for small church worship

I can’t help but notice how many worship song album versions aren’t very suitable for small churches. So many songs are either too rangy for small congregations with octave leaps that leave either the men or the women stranded. Or when original album keys are too high I’ve heard so many worship leaders change a song into a key that works for their own voice but is still equally unsingable for the majority of the congregation. So here are some tips that may help make those anthemic songs a little more singable.

The old “Don’t sing above top D” advice

When trying to decide a good congregational key many people say don’t sing notes above a top D but that doesn’t really tell the whole story. Finding the right key is much more than purely locating the song’s ultimate high and low notes, it’s fundamentally more to do with finding where the power of the song lies and setting the key so that those power notes can be sung more powerfully by more of the people, more of the time.

Another way of looking at it

Let’s think of a song in two ways, range and strength. In terms of pure range, as a rule of thumb if you’re trying to find a workable congregational range I’d suggest using A below middle C on the keyboard as the lowest note, then up to a D above the octave. If you’re a guitarist, the easiest way to visualise that is by using your A string. Played open as the low point up to fret 17 for the top D.

Remember that men have a higher range than women

Conversely, thinking about where each gender typically sings with most strength the available range then moves further apart. If you take that same range of low A to D above the octave, a stereotypical woman’s voice will be strongest on that low end and best between E and B, so frets 7 to 14 and a typical man’s strong range would start to push nicely at the higher end of the range, between the A on fret 12 and that D on fret 17. As you can see than means there’s really only a single tone, effectively between A and B on frets 12 and 14 where both gender’s sing at their strongest points.

You don’t have Chris Tomlin’s voice so don’t try and go there

In the real world many original versions of worship songs sound too high because they need to be recorded around the lead vocalist’s strongest vocal range where there’s most power. Taking a Chris Tomlin or Phil Wickham type of voice, those guys sound very strong ABOVE the top end of our congregational range which is why they regularly hit D, E, F# and G notes, which is beyond most non pro male vocal abilities, let alone women’s.

So for a song to be truly congregational its strongest notes need to be placed across that E to C mid way fulcrum where both men and women have more of a chance of hitting more of the notes. Higher and lower is fine sometimes but not for the power moments or majority of the song.

So what do we do with those songs?

Practically, bringing a Wickham/Hughes/Tomlin/male Hillsong led song down a minor 3rd so both genders can sing it and bringing some of the female led songs up a tone so as to not completely exclude the men does the trick.

For something like 10,000 Reasons bringing it down a minor 3rd from G to E works extremely well as it’s not a very rangy song and the majority of the power notes fall between G# and C#. If you have more women in the congregation, come down another tone to D and it’ll still be reachable by both genders.

And what about the octave jumps?

Similarly octave leaps sound great on record, but in practice will probably result in 50% less people singing when you get there, so realistically I’d favour dropping the leap and choose a key in the middle of those two octaves. For instance Matt Redman’s ‘Here For You’ in B and ‘Cornerstone’ in C both drop nicely into G if you drop the jump.

The use of octave jumps to “lift” a song seems to have taken the place of the key change.
Maybe for the benefit of guitars?
And when we are unable to do the octave jump because of the range, the song doesn’t get that lift. And becomes shorter. Some might say that this is a good thing ;)

Jay Davis

Very good article…answering questions we really ask…good article!

JasonChollar

Fantastic article. One of the main reason the old hymns are voice so high is because they are orchestrated for 4 voice choir which means the melody was written to be sung by the sopranos and bass singers can only go so low.
I have to say that I think it can be very helpful in some situations to actually put it in the ideal range for the person who is leading, and it’s not a question of selfishness. If the person who happens to be leading is not a typical baritone or mezzo-soprano … they are for example a bass, or an ultra high tenor or super low alto, and they are stretching their voice in either direction, then you either lack energy in the room, because the lead singer can’t convey the same amount of passion where they don’t have any power in their voice … or everyone gets nervous because if the worship leader is struggling to reach the notes … it must certainly be too high. And also, there are always congregation members who are in that same boat. Every once in a while singing a song in THEIR ideal key so they can really belt out the melody and not have to search for a harmony, can be quite appreciated.

Heather T

One tip I have for the writer–don’t presume all readers are going to be playing guitar. Keyboard references would be helpful Such as for the A below middle C, that would be called A4. The D above C4 (the note 5 half steps above A4) would be D5. And thus your reference for the strongest vocal points for males would be A4, Bb4 and B4, and for females, A5, Bb5 and B5.

Seanl

I agree with pretty much everything said here. I personally do try to keep songs within A4 and D5 with a few exceptions. My concern in worship is not so much the leaders range as the congregations range. If it is out of their range, most often they won’t sing and then it becomes a solo.

Seanl

WendyCalway The octave jump can be very powerful but usually works best for a singer with a wide range. There are songs though that could get boring without the key change or octave jump.

Seanl

I forgot to mention. Most hymns you find in the hymnal are actually written in excellent keys. They were written though for a time when the congregation sang parts and knew how to read music.

Simon

Small church of limited ability, it’s exactly what we do. Don’t let the song go much above D, loose the octave jumps and pick something in the middle. Drop songs altogether with silly ranges (i.e the popular sing the verse about right for congregations then have a stupid high chorus which if you drop means the verse is now better tuned for whales).
In addition it’s good to have the usable range of keys for a song as if it’s guitar lead it’s nice if you can link songs without having to fiddle with the capo which can often be achieved by a semi tone change in key. Knowing what they are helps a lot.
As a guitarist easiest way to work is to make a chordpro version of the words+chords and then you can use some bit of software like songbook to easily change the key. Then practice a bit until you find a key that’s about right. Also makes it easy to try different capo’s to see which capo’d key works best.

macsim

I grew up singing hymns for many years. I have a low voice and I cannot remember a single one I could sing start to finish without dropping to a lower octave. I sang as best I could and did not drop out of church.
Now I am a contemporary guitarist. I think we forget sometimes that not only does Tomlin write for his voice but the songs often tend to revolve around open string drones on guitar. You can only capo so much. Worship leaders decry the lack of preparation by the team but how many hours are guitarists expected to put in rearranging songs? I recently sat in at another church and spent hours learning the material. First tune was one of the Tomlin Christmas songs in G with the open string drone. Arrived at practice and WL says oh by the way, forgot to mention key is F. I hurriedly managed to pull something out of my rear-end and made it work but I guarantee a guitarist with less experience would have been lost. If you are a 4 string bassist and a song is dropped from E to E flat you not only lose your lowest note, you change hand positioning.
Changing keys for singing sounds great in theory (pun intended ) but keep in mind you may be taking years off the life of your guitarist and don’t be too upset if he can no longer do that droning dotted 8th lick the whole song was written around.

PhilipC

Seanl I agree with the first half of your comment but, regarding the second, many hymns were written for congregations that couldn’t read words, let alone music. They were used a means of teaching and reinforcing biblical truths.